Sometime in history a sultan hired an architect to make a mosque, which would be larger than Hagia Sophia. However, the architect was unable to construct a bigger dome than Ayya Sophia’s, so he instead made the mosque splendid by the perfect proportion of domes, semidomes, and minarets. Still, the building failed to surpass Ayya Sophia in size, which greatly angered the sultan.

The mosque is known in the west as the Blue Mosque because of the predominantly blue coloring of paintwork of the interior. However this blue paint was not part of the mosque’s original decor so it is being removed. Today the interior of the mosque does not strike the visitor as being particularly blue.